From Real to Reel: IP in Celluloid Part II

We meet again with the second and concluding part of the post dealing with the list of movies having a substantial reference to IP/innovation in some way or another (For those who are yet to read the first part, see here). The debates about extending the term of copyright can be rekindled by the story that had been depicted in the movie About a Boy, a 2002 movie starring Hugh Grant and Toni Collette, where the protagonist is a playboy […]

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From Real to Reel: IP in Celluloid Part I

Terry Pratchett had written once, “The whole of life is just like watching a film. Only it’s as though you always get in ten minutes after the big picture has started, and no-one will tell you the plot, so you have to work it out all yourself from the clues.” A noble sentiment, indeed, which Steve Martin had sought to mirror in his inimitable style, “You know what your problem is, it’s that you haven’t seen enough movies – all

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Reckitt v. HUL- the tale of comparative advertising

In the last week of September, the High Court of Calcutta issued a judgment on the issue of comparative advertising in the dispute between  Reckitt Benkiser (India) Ltd. v. Hindustan Unilever Ltd.  This is the third matter between the two parties on the issue of comparative advertising. Our posts on the earlier two matters can be found here and here. The dispute was with respect to four advertisements published by both parties concerned. The first advertisement portrays Dettol Kitchen Gel

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SpicyIP Tidbit: J. A. Production permanently restrained from using ‘Hamara Bajaj’ by a consent order

As blogged about earlier, John Abraham’s film production house J.A. Entertainment Pvt Ltd. is embroiled in a copyright and trademark infringement case for its upcoming movie titled ‘Hamara Bajaj’. Ostensibly, the movie derives its title from the story of the film which is centered around the life of one ‘Sanjay Bajaj’. But the same two words have been used consistently by Bajaj Auto Ltd. as a tag line for advertising ‘Bajaj Chetak’, one of the most popular Bajaj scooters (which is

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The Draft Intellectual Property Policy of South Africa

The South African government released its much awaited ‘Draft National Policy on Intellectual Property, 2013’ (“Draft Policy”) for public consultation. According to the news report, the pro-reform civil society collective cautiously welcomed the release of the Draft Policy. The civil society collective inter alia advocated for reforming the South Africa’s IP laws such as a) adoption and implementation of an examination system for all pharmaceutical patent applications; b) strengthening patentability criteria to prevent evergreening; and c) promoting high standards for

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Kerala HC ends suo moto proceedings against the grant of Attukal deity trademark – II

[*Long Post]                                                                                                 Analysis of the judgment I shall analyse the judgment in this post. At the outset, I would like to state that I am a positivist. I believe in an impartial legal analysis of the given set of facts devoid of any moral argument whatsoever. For the following reasons, I argue that the extant legal framework impliedly prohibits the registration of marks such as the Instant Marks and the instant judgment is, therefore, legally incorrect. [For my

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Kerala HC ends suo moto proceedings against the grant of Attukal deity trademark – I

I had earlier reported that the Kerala HC ended suo moto proceedings against the grant of Attukaldeity trademark and declined to grant any relief on merits. Broadly speaking, the HC held that the grant doesn’t violate Trade Marks Act, 1999 (“TM Act”) and Constitution of India. I intend to analyse the aforesaid judgment dated 12 September 2013 in these posts. In the first post, I shall present an abstract of the judgment. I shall analyse the judgment in the second

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Ordinance declares potential imprisonment upto 7 years for piracy

The West Bengal State cabinet has cleared a new ordinance that provides for a minimum term of imprisonment and amount of fine of three years and Rs. 25000 and a maximum term of imprisonment and fine of seven years and Rs. 100000 respectively for piracy offences. The ordinance is touted to be for the benefit of the singers and other artists in the film industry who were suffering huge losses owing to the rampant piracy of audio and video CD’s

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ICC announces Positive Innovation Agenda from Late October, 2013

(Image from here) The readers of Spicy IP may be interested in an announcement recently made by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). It is about Positive Innovation Agenda, an IP-related project that is scheduled to be launched at the end of October, 2013. For those who are unaware, ICC has for a long period of time provided a forum for businesses and other organizations to examine and better comprehend the nature and significance of the major shifts taking place

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Extension granted for the Competition Commission’s investigation into Google

 The Competition Commission has granted extension to its Director General to complete its investigation into the alleged unfair market prices indulged in by Google. The complaint against Google was that Google was using its dominant position in the market (it accounts for 90% of the Internet search engine market in India) to favour certain platforms under certain categories and was hence acting in a discriminatory manner.  As the Competition Commission was satisfied that there existed a prima facie case against

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